Shakespeare in Love

Cait interviews cast members for the new production of the Tom Stoppard move blockbuster, Shakespeare in Love, adapted for the stage.
Young Will Shakespeare has writer's block... the deadline for his new play is fast approaching but he's in desperate need of inspiration. That is, until he finds his muse – the courtly Viola de Lesseps. This beautiful young woman is Will’s greatest admirer and will stop at nothing (including breaking the law) to appear in his next play, disguising herself as boy-player Thomas Kemp. Against a bustling background of mistaken identity, ruthless scheming and backstage theatrics, Will’s love for Viola quickly blossoms and inspires him to write his greatest masterpiece.
The story is, at heart, a romantic comedy but it is also about the glorious world of show-business - nothing much changes in theatre and that London's Bankside in 1593 was much like commercial theatre today. Money men assert their power, scripts get rewritten, egos have to be massaged, rivalries develop and last-minute crises intervene. Yet, by the magic that is theatre - somehow Shakespeare manages to turn the distinctly unpromising Romeo and Ethel the Pirate’s Daughter into the masterpiece that is Romeo and Juliet.
Shakespeare in Love
Based on the Screenplay by Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard, adapted for the stage by Lee Hall
Directed by Jodi Rilot & Barney Hart Dyke
12-16 November, 7.45pm
16 November, 3pm
Artistic Directors: Barney and Cait Hart Dyke.
Podcast Editor, sound design and interview: Nick Wells.
Music is 'At the Tropicana' by Chalalatas, license courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
Recorded at the Putney Arts Theatre.

The Putney Theatre Company at The South West End!
See us online – putneytheatrecompany.org.uk